2016 Budget does not exceed N6.08 Trillion — Lai Mohammed

The Minister of Information and Culture,
Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said on Saturday
said that the 2016 budget was not padded
because the total figure voted for all
ministries had not exceeded N6.08 trillion.
Briefing newsmen in Lagos, he said: “The
total for every ministry has remained
exactly the same as what was submitted
to the National Assembly. “A lot has been
said about the budget.
 Let make clear that nobody can ever
accuse this government of padding any
budget. “The total of all ministries put
together has not exceeded N6.08 trillion
that was submitted.
It is factually incorrect to say that the
budget was padded. “This is the first time
in the history of this country that a
government will embark what is called
zero based budget. “Before now, the
budget system was what was called an
enveloped system. In an envelope
system, there is no justification as to why
we need N30 billion for a structure.’’ “This
year, we decide that every ministry must
have a zero based budget.
In other word, you must justify and
explain why you need N100 billion. “This is
very good system, the soft ware for it was
also very different. The personnel were
not used to it,’’ “Now, in the process we
got to National Assembly. What the
ministers do is to have a broad overview
of the budget. The template used by the
Budget Office is uniform for all ministers.’’
The minister also said exports, balance of
trade, Gross Domestic Product were
responsible for currency appreciation and
depreciation.
“Before now we use to sell crude for
about 100 dollar per barrel which means
if we produce two million barrels per day,
you have something in the region of 200
million dollar less the expenditure of
production and others.
“But today for the same two million
barrels, you have less than 60 million
dollar less the cost of production.’’
“Clearly if your major source of exchange
is crude and it has gone down from 100
per cent, you have lost 70 per cent of your
source. “Secondly, if your balance of trade
is surplus, in other word, if you export
more than you import, then you are going
to have less money to settle other
countries. “What the government is doing
is to ensure that the little resources we
have are properly managed. Part of
decision we took was Treasury Single
Account.
“Others include blocking all sort form of
corruption and diversify economy so that
we can get foreign exchange for other
sources,’’ he said.

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